Waaswaagoning

The LCOOCC Lac du Flambeau Outreach Site is located in the Adawe Mall. We are centrally located in the heart of downtown Lac du Flambeau in three of the stores at the mall. A few of our classes are held at the nearby tribal education center, the grade school and the tribe’s natural resources building. Students attending classes at this site have come from as far away as Phillips, Rhinelander and the Lac Vieux Desert Chippewa Reservation. We are convenient to Lac du Flambeau, Minocqua, Mercer, Boulder Junction and other surrounding communities.

The Lac du Flambeau site offers ten Associate’s degrees—Liberal Arts, Native American Studies, Native American Studies with language emphasis, Human Services, Casino Operations Management, Early Childhood Education, Medical Office Mid-Management, Business Administration—Small Business Management Emphasis, Business Administration—Accounting Emphasis, and General Studies. Students may also complete a certificate in Hospitality and Customer Service at the site. We will be adding a Nursing Assistant (CNA) program in summer 2015. The Lac du Flambeau Outreach Site is located approximately two hours from the main campus at Lac Courte Oreilles. A number of students have elected to begin their general education studies at Lac du Flambeau and transfer to main campus to complete their degree programs in a diversity of disciplines. This process allows students attend classes close to home for a least their first year of college. Interactive television (ITV) and online courses connect the site to the three other reservations the college serves and to students across the state.

Classes are small at the Lac du Flambeau site and instructors strive to foster collaborative learning environments in the classroom. For these reasons, students tend to become very close providing a system of support for each other degrees. Most instructors live in the community. Some are tribal members. In addition, whenever possible, instructors draw on the strengths and knowledge of elders and other community members to meet the unique needs of the student body and course curriculum.

The site houses a 12-station computer lab, which is open to students most of the day during the week and on some weekends for study. In addition, each of the site’s other two buildings has a handful of computers to support classes.

The site is an integral part of the community. We work closely with the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Education Department to provide the community with much needed educational programs. For example, a casino management cohort is taking classes together with the goal of becoming managers at Lake of the Torches Casino. Other cohorts are planned. In addition, we provide extension programs to the community on a variety of topics, such as poetry writing, regalia making, black ash basketry and others. Finally, we offer classes at the Vilas County Jail as part of the college’s Oshki-Bimaadiziiwin program. Many of these students continue working on their degree at the site after being released from the jail.